[di meliora]

Barbara Dane, an 85-year-old jazz and blues singer who lives in Oakland, Calif., has seen this play out in her relationship circles.

“As you get older, you see the world writing you off,” she said, adding, “So you tend to become passive and think, ‘I don’t want to bother anybody.’ You lose contact with your own kind, your tribe. And before you know it, you’re feeling bad.”

“It’s kind of life a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your eyes start to fasten on the sunset, and you start walking toward it.” http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2...of-loneliness/

The topic is familiar. The studies affirm and clarify what already is generally known, accept for:

An unanswered question is what explains the physical impact of loneliness on older adults. Andrew Steptoe, director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care at University College, London, has been studying this subject. “There is growing evidence that both loneliness and social isolation are related to biological processes that may increase health risk, including changes in immune and inflammatory processes and disruption of the stress-related hormones,” he wrote in an e-mail.

We are all get older. Our children see how we treat seniors. What will they see?

thanks for the artickle... interesting stuff